On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 18:15:04 -0700 (PDT) "Jaime A. Headden"
<qilongia@yahoo.com> writes:
> <My gut feeling is that adult _T. rex's_ probably didn't "scavenge"
> in any
> classic sense (ala hyenas or vultures).>
> You should restrict that to largely vultures, since hyenas do
> spend a good
> deal of time hunting and are not the classic scavengers they are
> painted to be.
And that is my point about the (largely) fruitlessness of "Is _T. rex_ a
scavenger?" discussions. The taphonomic evidence, in particular the DMNH
_Edmontosaurus_ skeleton, strongly suggests that _T. rex_ hunted. And
many extant "classic" scavengers (such as hyaenas) also are known to
hunt.
What are we to conclude from this data? IMHO, we should conclude that
our time would be better spent trying to figure out the methodology,
preferences, and mode of preservation of bite-marked dinosaur fossils.
Those questions may be more easily (and more definatively) answerable.
The typical "gestalt-style" analysis that we often read here on the DML
that concludes that _T. rex_ just *looks* like a scavenger because [fill
in character trait of choice here] doesn't preclude a scavenging
lifestyle, is IMHO nothing more than arm-waving (no pun intended).
Pinning _T. rex_ down as a pure scavenger is largely a slight of hand
trick (and that WAS meant to be a pun).
<pb>
--
"For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.
A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a
Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people".-- Excerpts from the
Declaration of Independence of the United States of America